Hello readers! Today is the official publication of Rail by Kai Carlson-Wee, and Kai sent us a special playlist of songs that inspired his work. 

Listen to the playlist on Spotify and read Kai's liner notes below. Enjoy!

A note from Kai Carlson-Wee:

Most of the poems in RAIL were started while I was traveling. They typically began as scraps of sound, lyrics I jotted down, images, impressions, which I then cobbled together later on. Obviously the poems I was reading would fuel the sound, but just as often the music I was listening to would influence the writing. The way I listen to music is sort of obsessive. When I find a certain song I like, I listen to it on repeat for weeks. The soundtrack I’ve made here is composed of songs I listened to repeatedly during the 10 years I was writing RAIL. For instance, when I was living in a garage in Bellingham, Washington, I would bike around town listening to “Halah” by Mazzy Star. When I was traveling in Europe I listened to Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” over and over. When I was living in New York in 2007 (when I wrote the first poems in the book) I was listening to “I Dream a Highway” by Gillian Welch. The song “Forget About” by Sibylle Baier inspired the poem Secret Air. The Johnny Cash version of “Hurt” was actually sung by some friends and I in the poem Northtown Choir. The lyrics from “White Freightliner Blues” by Townes Van Zandt are used as an epigraph to the book. If I was being comprehensive, this soundtrack would be much much longer, but the songs I’ve included here are some personal favorites and represent personal ties to the poems. 

Celebrate National Poetry Month with BOA Editions! Save 40% on all BOA titles using promo code BOAPOETRY18. Stock up on new and favorite poetry titles for your family and friends!